Listen vs servitor

“Where is he?” Listen asked a guard standing beside a door. The guard was the biggest turtleneck there, with a neck like a fireplug.
“Inside,” the guard said.
“It is nearly time,” Listen said. “Inform him.”
“He left orders that he was not to be disturbed.”
Listen seemed to consider that for a moment. Then he said, “A lack of punctuality will invalidate the treaty and make our mission impossible. Inform him.”
The guard scowled. “The lord left orders that—”
Listen’s upper body surged in a sudden motion, so fast that I could only see it as motion. The big guard let out a sudden hiss and a grunt, and blood abruptly fountained from his throat. He staggered a step, turned to Listen, and raised a hand.
Then he shuddered and collapsed on the floor, blood pumping rapidly from a huge and jagged wound in his neck.
Listen dropped a chunk of meat the size of a baseball from his bare, bloody fingers, and bent over to wipe them clean on the dead turtleneck’s sweater. The blood didn’t show against the black. He straightened up again and then knocked on the door.


Brief Cases, Bombshells, Page 257